FAMILY

Twenty-five years have passed and the awful headlines that brought a national scandal to light have long since faded from memory for most Canadians.

Not so for Burlington's Steve and Saxon Lambert.

Twenty-five years ago, they learned their son, Tyler, 12 years old at the time, had become one of about 700 hemophiliacs in Canada to contract HIV and hepatitis C as part of the tainted blood scandal during the 1980s.

On April 3, Tyler Lambert died from the complications of pneumonia, just two weeks after his 37th birthday.

"The victims of the tainted blood scandal are so far in the past now," said Steve Lambert. "They are passing and no one is thinking about that anymore.

"It's old news. But it isn't."

Saxon said about 98 per cent of hemophiliacs born in Canada between 1977 and 1989 ended up becoming infected with HIV from tainted blood.

As the scandal unfolded over several years, Canadians learned blood products were being imported for use from highly questionable sources, such as U.S. prisoners.

"It's fresh in our minds why our son died, and I think it has to be told again," Steve added. "It's the best thing we can do in Tyler's memory."

Tyler was born in 1977 and diagnosed with hemophilia at the age of three months.

"That shattered us for a while," Saxon said. "I remember driving past a golf course and crying, thinking he could never play golf. But he turned out to be very rambunctious."

As Saxon was a nurse, she could administer Tyler's treatments, which allowed the family to lead a relatively normal life, including long summer vacations at their cottage.

In 1989, they learned of their son's HIV infection at a time when HIV/AIDS was essentially a death sentence and carriers of the virus were stigmatized.

The Lamberts didn't even tell their family for some time and it was about a year before they told their son.

"He said 'Oh don't worry, Mom, I'll tell my friends and everything will be OK,' " she recalled. "And I said 'I don't want you to tell anybody.'

"At that age, I was so nervous," she added. "What if Tyler had a friend over? Would the parents be upset?"

Tyler ended up learning how to administer his own treatments, attended George Brown College and became a graphic designer.

He also travelled the world, from Thailand to Japan, and even attended a wedding in Scotland where he dressed in a kilt.

In the past year, however, Tyler's health deteriorated quickly, likely because of the steady accumulation of damage to his liver. He was in and out of hospital several times since last fall.

He celebrated his birthday at home on March 21, but just over a week later, he was back in intensive care at Hamilton's Juravinski hospital.

"He said to me 'Mom, am I dying?' and I said 'Well, not today," Saxon recalls.

Shortly after, though, he drifted out of consciousness and died peacefully a couple of days later.

What the Lamberts will remember is that their son never complained about the hand he was dealt and never cried "woe is me."

"You couldn't find one time he said that, and that's what makes us so proud of him," said Steve, and for the first time in a lengthy interview his voice catches with emotion.

"He was the bravest man I know.

"He never cursed the system, he never said a thing about it, he was generous, he was kind, he was polite, he was a giving person," his father added. "He wanted a normal life."

Family and friends will gather at Bay Gardens Funeral Home in Burlington at 2 p.m. on April 27 for a memorial service in Tyler's honour.